"Spellbound Caves" from Vechs

I started Spellbound Caves last night and it is a total blast.  I have recorded 4 episodes so far and the first one is going up now.  I will post some screenshots and updates between video uploads here so check back frequently to see how things are going.  I will be dying, I am sure of it.  :-)  Happy new year everyone!

-Dan

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  God bless you all.

Updates...

The bedroom is starting to come along.  I am playing with the week 50 snapshot and the sheep regenerate their wool nicely.  It works so well that I am changing my approach on wool farming.  I also put up a few chandeliers.  I think they turned out great.  Also it turns out we are bordering a taiga biome.  That should make for some fun.  I have a couple more adventure videos to post and then we will be back working on wrapping up the castle.  Stay tuned.  :-)

Sunset on the garden terrace.

If only I could move into my Minecraft world.  :-)

The East Tower and more progress shots...

I am continuing to work on the castle.  A new video will be up today where we design the garden terrace.  Here are some shots of the castles progress from yesterday and last night.

The castle gate...

Yes it's a monstrosity.  I love the idea but on the next castle it will need a better redstone design.

Let me know what you think.  The video is here:  Minecraft: On The Block Episode 20

Obsidian generator update...

I moved the obsidian generator to its own room.  The one in the video is pretty rough as far as space design goes.  :-)  This is much better.  Regardless, check out the video for the tutorial on building it.

Some more construction updates from the castle site.

The castle complex is coming along.  Here are some screens.  I have actually made a lot of progress since these shots were taken.  The next video will be a tour of the current site and discussion of plans.  Until then...

Thoughts on the mine and the first week...

Ok, so the mine turned out to be a dud.  The negative comment has brought up a point that I wanted to mention though.  There will be a lot of stuff just like the abandoned mine where I just have no idea what I am doing.  I don’t really like to just go read forums and find out everything about the game before I play, I like to experience it for myself.  I have only been playing for about 3 weeks so I haven't seen all there is to see.  Also, a lot of the experiences in the game can be rare and depending on how you play, and the world that is generated, you might not find them very quickly.  The point is that even after I have been playing for a year you might see me do stuff like a newbie.  I hope that is some of the fun. 

I just want to play the game, try and do a good job commentating and hope people enjoy it.  I want to take feedback and improve the videos and I want to build a world with history that we can all enjoy.

Anyway, thanks for all the feedback and comments and especially support.  This is hard and I want to be good at it but I know I have a long way to go.  If you keep watching, leaving comments and giving thumbs up I will continue to make the videos and I am sure they will eventually get much better.  :-)  Or maybe I will be famous for making bad videos.

One final comment on that.  The videos "getting better" will not mean that I change what I do.  I will always mix adventure and tutorial and just do what I like to do in the game.  I think I will get better with sound levels, light levels, some production quality, and commentary as we go.  DarkMatterShot mentioned that he didn’t want to see me change y approach or fast forward or skip exploring sessions.  I agree.  I will do a better job of doing the grunt work off camera and capture all of my exploring/brainstorming/building sessions for you guys to see.

Please continue to leave feedback and please tell everyone you know that likes this kind of stuff about the series.  I am going to keep this blog up to date as much as possible and as I get more comfortable with the video process I will do a better job here.

Thanks again and God Bless!

-Dan

Holy crap. Abandoned mines! Who Knew?

Well that was terrifying.  Wait till you see episode 17 parts 1 and 2 where I die.  Maybe in real life of a heart attack and maybe in the game from FREAKING POISON SPIDERS.  :-)

Construction is under way!

Construction has started on the castle.  I have spent a lot of time laying out and expanding the site on the north side.  I also got lucky and found an amazing mine under the site.  There is solid granite directly under the site for layers and layers.  I will have all the stone I could need and we will get a sweet dungeon out of the deal.  I also found what is probably the best cavern system for adventure that I have seen in the game thus far with a lot of ore.  Still slim pickins for the diamonds though.

In the caverns I found my first abandoned mine which is exciting.  We will do some exploring in the caverns in episode 16 or 17.  In 16 we will definitely tour the building site and talk about plans for continuing development.  Here are some screenshots of the site under construction.

The castle site.

The site as seen from the outpost tower.

A view from what will be the bedroom.

Thoughts on the castle...

I am going to start doing some prep work for the castle in episode 13 or 14.  My plan is to build in the forest behind the tower.  Does anyone think that I should build in the desert?  I thought about that, using sandstone but I really like the forest idea.   An oasis in the desert might be cool though too.  Let me know what you think.

I will improve!

Ok, so I am now 10 episodes in and some things are becoming clear.  First, I have to do a better job of time management and planning what I am going to show.  I have been trying to do more prep and planning ahead of time but I still don’t have a good handle on how long things will take so the videos are still very disjointed.

I am also making a lot of mistakes while recording and should probably go back and add text corrections in the post processing for those.  For instance, I mentioned in an episode that zombies drop arrows and that to get a lot of arrows we could find a zombie generator.  That is of course not true, you need skeletons not zombies.  I also kept messing up on the grass thing saying that you need grass to grow various stuff and ended with saying you need grass to grow trees.  You don’t even need it to grow trees.  Just dirt.  I knew both of those things to be wrong but still have trouble juggling the play/commentary/trying to be interesting aspect of things.  I will make fewer mistakes as I get more comfortable with the process and I will also add text in future episodes to correct the mistakes.

Finally, I need to do a better job of getting the word out about the videos.  I posted on the minecraftforums.net site once and then didn’t do any additional advertising.  I would ask that if you enjoy the videos, please help me spread the word or give me suggestions of how I can spread the word.

Also, if you like the idea of this blog supporting the show leave me comments here and let me know you want me to do a better job of keeping it up.  Posting screenshots, discussing future plans etc.

Again, thank you so much for watching and taking the time to check out the blog.  I really value the comments to please leave them if you have anything at all to say.

-Dan

Apologies for the lack of posts...

I know I am woefully behind on posting here.  I am going to add screenshots and some posts describing the videos to this point but I have been focused on getting the videos out.  I am also going to lay out some plans for upcoming projects and request feedback on how to implement those plans.

Anyway, sorry for the lack of posting here.  If you are checking this blog please leave a comment and let me know you are interested in reading supporting material for the videos.

As always, thanks for watching and tell your friends.  :-)


-Dan

The house is coming along.

We have a great view.  It takes a while to get to the basement but its worth the trip.
Check out the latest videos here: Minecraft: On The Block YouTube Channel

Welcome to Minecraft: On The Block

This blog is in support of my YouTube channel which can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/minecraftontheblock?feature=mhee 

The series is starting with a newly generated world and will initially serve as a loose tutorial although ultimately this is a grand adventure and expansion series.  I am playing on hardcore and will be posting 4 to 5 times a week initially (maybe even more).  

Please let me know what you think by leaving comments here and on the YouTube channel.  I will definitely take your feedback and use it to improve the series. 

Thank you for watching.   

-Dan Frank